RALPH WILL BE ON THE DAILY SHOW TUSEDAY MARCH 4, 2008, SPREAD THE WORD
******IF YOU WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA/CLINTON/MCCAIN, GIVE NOW TO NADER/GONZALEZ.***************
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THIS IS NADER ON C-SPAN 2/29/08
rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/c08/c08_wj022908_nader.rm
Matt Gonzalez Ralph Nader's running mate 2008 address at National Press Club,Washington, DC February 28, 2008
Gonzalez earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1987, and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1990. At Columbia, he studied comparative literature, political theory, and was a member of the debate team.While attending Stanford, he was an editor for the Stanford Law Review and member of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. He worked on immigration issues at the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, pending death penalty cases at the California Appellate Project, and "gender discrimination and religious clause issues" as a research assistant to the Dean of the School, constitutional law scholar Paul Brest.In 1991, he began working as a trial lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender in San Francisco where he earned a reputation as a skilled trial lawyer. He represented and won eight out of nine life-in-prison cases (the ninth was later won at appeal) and was named "Lawyer of the Year" by the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association in 2000.Gonzalez entered politics when he ran for San Francisco District Attorney in 1999. He campaigned in a field of five candidates, including incumbent Terence Hallinan. His campaign focused on cleaning up alleged political corruption, prosecuting environmental crimes, and fighting illegal evictions.Hallinan won the race but the campaign raised Gonzalez's profile. He finished third with 11 percent of the vote, or 20,153 votes. Gonzalez switched to the Green Party in what he called "a political or moral epiphany." Gonzalez was attending a rally at the offices of KRON-TV in San Francisco to protest the absence of Green Party senatoral candidate Medea Benjamin at a debate between Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and her Republican challenger Tom Campbell. Gonzalez described his conversion to the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "I couldn't help thinking of how most of my support in last year's district attorney's race came as a result of being allowed into televised debates with my better-known opponents and how that support has eventually led to my being the frontrunner in the District 5 supervisorial race. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wasn't OK with it. I didn't want to be a member of a party that was urging the exclusion of a candidate solely on the grounds that the candidate didn't have enough support, when it's precisely television coverage that could win that candidate public acceptance.
So if the Democratic Party is working so hard to squelch valuable debate, why should I remain a Democrat? I was already discouraged by Al Gore's pronouncements, during the presidential debates, in favor of the death penalty and his equivocation on gay marriage. As I reflected on this, I realized I had less in common with Feinstein's party than with Medea Benjamin's."
In 2003, Gonzalez ran for Mayor of San Francisco, in a bid to replace outgoing two-term mayor Willie Brown. On a ballot with nine candidates' names, Gonzalez finished second behind Gavin Newsom in the initial mayoral election on November 4. Gonzalez received 19.6 percent of the total vote to Newsom's 41.9 percent.
In the left-leaning political newsletter CounterPunch, Bruce Anderson wrote, "If Matt Gonzalez, a member of the Green Party, is elected mayor of San Francisco, it will be a dagger straight into the rotted heart of the Democratic Party... He wants to represent the many against the fortunate few the present mayor has faithfully represented for years now."
The candidate, however, saw the election in different terms. "They're scared, not of a Green being elected mayor", he said, "but of an honest person being elected mayor." Despite the fact that only 3 percent of voters in San Francisco were registered Green,the opposition of national Democrats, and being outspent 5-to-1 (Gonzalez was outspent by $4.4 - 4.9 million to his spending $800,000 - 900,000),Gonzalez sought to tighten spending caps and expand public financing, and Newsom was accused of campaign improprieties and violating spending limits.Newsom spent between $5.3 - 5.7 million and won with 52.8% or 133,546 votes.Given these figures, Gonzalez spent $6.70 - $7.50 per vote, and Newsom $38.90 - $42.70 per vote. Gonzalez's candidacy reached beyond his party affiliation. Newsom won the run-off election held on December 9, by a margin of 14,217 votes (5.7 percent). Gonzalez garnered 119,329 votes (47.19 percent) to Newsom's 133,546 (52.81 percent).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Gonzalez

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